Timothy Birdnow

One of the memes that has been making the rounds is that FBI Director James Comey did us a favor by not refering charges to his boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The argument being made is that, by not simply turning over evidence of criminality to Lynch - who would squash it - Comey laid out the case for prosecution without actually asking for formal charges, thus putting Hillary Clinton in a politically impossible situation. The thinking is that Comey, rather than waste a quiet referal, hurt Hillary as best he could. He's a hero, a titan of political acumen and moral courage! Or so the thinking goes.

This is, sadly, the same thinking that was applied to Chief Justice John Roberts when he rewrote the Affordable care Act to push it's bloated, elephantine carcass through the eye-of-the-needle gate of Constitutionality. At the time many on our side were praising Roberts for this as well, claiming he was acting to push America off the path of socialism and driving the flock of sea gull brained to the Grand Old Party.

If that was his intent, he violated his oath of office, but many on our side argued it nonetheless. Oh, and it didn't work.

The same is very true in this instance. Comey essentially rewrote the law to make intent to harm the country a prerequisite for proferring charges - something that is not and never has been the case, lest why is the statute about malfeasance and carelessness? She would be charged rather with espionage. Ignorance of the law has never been an excuse nor has lack of criminal intent; nobody who gets drunk, drives, and kills someone woke that morning intending to committ vehicular manslaughter, yet they go to jail just the same.

Comey has to know this, and yet he put on a big show with sound and fury signifying nothing, and let Mrs. Clinton skip merrily away.

And what of the many other charges he could have brought? She ordered her server wiped professionally, and destroyed her blackberry. These are crimes involving obstruction of justice and evidence tampering. She also told investigators she had turned over all her e-mails when she obviously hadn't, which is perjury. She specifically told investigators she had no work-related items on her private server. That was a lie.

And, after Hillary's husband met with Comey's boss at the DOJ and a long holiday weekend, the man of impeccable character holds a presser and announces no charges. Really?

Does anybody remember when the saintly John Danforth investigated the FBI assault on the Branch Davidians at Waco Texas? He wasn't supposed to find evidence of wrongdoing and, surprise, surprise, he couldn't find it. Yes, there was some obstruction of justice by low level people, but nothing bad by the government itself. This was a foregone conclusion, in my mind; Danforth was supported by both parties at a time of extreme political polarization, and that should have tipped everyone off as to what the purpose of Danforth's investigation really served; it was a whitewash.

we've seen this repeatedly. Whatever became of the investigations of the many Clinton scandals? Of Whitewater, the White House Travel Office false prosecution of director Billy Dale? What of the Charlie Trie, James Riadi, Chinese money laundering scandal? That one saw illegal campaign donations coming to the Clintons in exchange for His Slickness granting loral Aerospace a waiver to fix problems with Chinese satellite launch vehicles - thus giving the Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles. Always there are special prosecutors, or FBI probes which wound up just like Comey's little kabuki dance.

And always we on the right make the same excuses. Desperate to find a silver lining in the nuclear winter cloudscape, so many conservatives refuse to face reality.

Take this blogpost from Thomas Lifson at American Thinker:

"At the risk of being labeled Panglossian, I do see a small upside in the decision of James Comey to recommend no prosecution of Hillary Clinton. This does not make me a happy camper: I mourn for the damage done to the rule of law by applying a different standard to the powerful from the one applied to the rest of us. This is civic cancer, and it makes me sick.

But if Comey had recommended prosecution and Hillary had been replaced by someone more electable (a large group, including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, for starters), Donald Trump would almost certainly be defeated. Nobody comes close to Hillary in matching the unfavorable opinions held of Donald Trump.

By providing vivid evidence that the fix was, in fact, in, Comey reinforced one of the main talking points of Trump. He didn’t have to, but he outlined a powerful case against Hillary Clinton, only to announce that she wouldn’t be prosecuted. This was tailored like a Saville Row suit to Trump’s campaign."

end excerpt.

Look, I get it; nobody wants to live in the slew of despond, and anyone wishing to continue the fight must try to find ways to keep up the troop spirits. But how many times are we to make excuses in this effort? The whole point of what the Clinton's do is to disspirit us. By making excuses we actually serve them by allowing them to get away with this; our failure to adequately punish their enablers makes for a political climate that favors them, because everyone is more afraid of the Clintons than of us, the Truth, the Law, justice, or even the final judgement of God.

As I told a person in the comments section on this American Thinker post, Comey did not do us any favors.

In warfare one rarely wins by losing battles, and especially when you are the smaller and less well-equipped army. Take the Civil War; the Confederates pretty much had to win decisively every battle because ever draw or loss meant the destruction of men and equipment that could not be replaced. Lincoln knew that, which is why he was so cross with his generals, who generally didn't want to take the fight to the South. Lee usually understood it and made every effort to outmaneuver his opposition. He fell pray to bloodlust at Gettysburg and it cost him the entire war. This is precisely where we stand here; we are fighting not just the Clintons but a mammoth machine, which includes the media, the universities, public schooling, corporate America, etc. We cannot afford a draw, much less a loss.

This was less than a draw.

And what will it accomplish? In two months the media will spin this from a damning indictment without charges into a full exoneration of her thighness, and in fact it will turn things on their heads, making the Republicans look like viciios little chihuahuas who falsely accused a noble person who just happened to best them. The public has short attention spans and shorter memories, and by the time this is over the public will have forgotten everything Comey said but will remember only that no charges were brought, hence she is innocent of everything.

Comey fully exonerated her; he just did it in a way to avoid being completely ruined by so doing.

And this business of not wanting to fight Biden or some other replacement? The devil you know is better than the devil you don't? I don't stand with that. I've always thought Obama was hoping to overturn Hillary's nomination after the convention anyway, and I suspected he was going to throw somebody we didn't know out there. It would have been better to force his hand earlier than he planned. And if I am wrong about that, it still doesn't matter because Hillary will have tarnished the Democrat brand by being indicted after winning the nomination - even while she was under investigation.

Also writing at American Thinker, Lee Cary argues that Comey also did us a service by showing America that the political arena is ripe with corruption and this will somehow translate into electoral succes for Trump. Huh??? The Clintons were horribly corrupt and yet they were re-elected in '96. The nation re-elected Obama as well. This is not an issue with many Americans who will not even be aware of it.

What is happening with so many conservatives is reminiscent of spouses or children of alcoholics. We are forever making excuses, covering, enabling. We fret that allowing those who betray their oaths or their duties to take their medicine will cause us grief, so we find every and any excuse to cover for them. "Oh, that vomiting was caused by the flu, not a fifth of scotch". Instead we cover for Comey or Roberts "he didn't betray his office, but rather tried to help in the only way he knew." The sad fact is Comey and Roberts and McCain and Romney are still political skid row drunks.

As I said earlier, these types of people need to fear us, fear the wrath of America and the eventual judgement of the Most High more than the Clintons or Obamas of this world. Right now they will always cave in to the stick and carrot approach of those in power. They need to fear NOT speaking Truth to Power.

That will never happen as long as we continue to pretend that a defeat is a kind of victory. Somebody really needs to devise a 12 step program for conservatives.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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